''This is exactly what baseball needed,'' Johnny Damon said. ''Hopefully
now the jealous fans who were calling us a bunch of names can take a step
back and hopefully they will give us a little respect. They're tarnishing
us lately. The fans should be happy now. There's no sign of another
stoppage.''

What names Johnny? 'Jealous' of what Johnny. Just get on base Johnny.

Pedro groin pushes him back. Will he bump Burkett?

Friday August 30, 2002

Sox Trounce
Tribe

Tough-not-weak Trot leads the way in last chance in Cleveland. Lowe sucks
it up and takes high road this time. Boston 15 Cleveland 5.

NOTHING TO
FEHR. STRIKE AVERTED!

But is it too (much) Little too late?

SETTLEMENT REACHED!

Tom and Katie are back.

Thursday August 29, 2002

SOX
PACK IT IN AGAINST YANKEES AGAIN. GRADY THINKS OUT-WITH-THE-BOX.

New York Takes it Easy on Boston 7-0.
Bags-Packed-Burkett and the rest of the
Cartel send cars but won't drive in runs. Uugie, Rickey, Wake, Burkett
Pack Up Early.

Larry on D&C says Grady tossed out the moving boxes.
But the in-crowd says they were all over the locker room.
Any wiggle room here? Or just wishful thinking? Will the Manager's "OBP"
bonus be his last?

Wednesday August 28, 2002

FANS STRIKE BACK

AND WON'T BE BACK

What part of that don't you understand BoycottBurkett?

Burkett yesterday when asked about strike on The Zone: "If I were the
union I wouldn't give them anymore, we've already given these owners
enough... (queston: why can't you guys get together, is it principle,
finances, personalities?) Burkett: "it's a combination of things
(why this isn't resolved)... 30 different owners with 30 different ideas
as to what they want... everyone has their own ideas... it's a combination
of things... if it's a quick strike, which I don't think is going to
happen, we'll miss a few games..."

SHOCKER: YANKS SPANK STRIKESOX 6-0

Tuesday August 27, 2002

STOP THE
CLARK

Larry Lucchino "no commento," Grady Little "we're a
little more informed than most," Derek Lowe ''I probably didn't have the
right frame of mind out there [Sunday]. ''I have to admit, [the possible
strike] is on my mind. I was out there pitching thinking, `This could be
my last start.' Maybe I wasn't as focused as I could have been.''

Rough cut of AL Player Representive paid five million dollars by your
Boston Red Sox to watch major league baseball from the best seat in the
house, Tony Clark, on with Jim Corsi and Bob Rodgers on NESN's
"Extra Innings" after last night's game with Fehr in his eyes:

TC: "...people paying a lot of attention and concern to the situation,
I've got messages on my cell phone right now..."

Bob YOU GO BOB Rodgers: something like "are you confident you'll be able
to fix the situation (competitive balance problem)?"

TC: "Interesting that we keep bringing up the same team... you'd be
amazed at the group of teams (outside of the Yankees) that aren't that
far apart in terms of revenue... these are also the same teams in the
late 80's and 90's that have had success... each team has a cycle....

TC: "Mr. Steinbrenner has done an outstanding job with the Yankees and
he continues to be successful... what's to say in a couple of years
those other teams won't have the same cycles?

TC: "Organizations that are doing well are full of veteran (read:
expen$ive) players. The organizations on the down side of the cycle have
to give the group of young players time to be successful, then they'll
be the players to run that team."

Bob YOU GO BOB Rodgers: "But those teams can't keep those young
players... like Oakland couldn't sign Giambi and he went to the Yankees"

Corsi jumps in for no reason as he is wont to do: "That's because they
wouldn't give him a 'no trade'... he's from California I think... he had
a problem with Billy Beane and burnt a bridge there..." (TC nodding)

TC: (addressing truth about teams not being to keep the young talent
when they go for the big contract with the money team) "Well you do your
best on siging the best around and take a calculated risk...blah, blah,
blah, blah, Fehr-#%&! blah)

------------

I am not going to sleep until Tony Clark has been released and Bob
Rodgers gets a raise. Rodgers brought up the other sports having a
cap, and Clark said something about how baseball "produces so much more
revenue, and be careful not to curtail it." And Rodgers came right
back and said, in effect, "if everyone is doing so well, why strike?"

And Clark had no answer for that.

WRAPAROUND WALKOFF WIN

Comeback Kids Keep it Going!

Sox Come Way Back from Long Gone Dead and Buried to Catch
Angels in 10th to win 10-9.

Goodbye Norma Rae, though I never knew you at all, you had
a place to hold yourself while those around you failed, Fehr crawled out
of the woodwork and he whispered into your brain, they set you on the
treadmill, but they couldn't change your swing. And it seems to me you
swung your bat like a candle in the wind, never knowing what to swing at
when the pitch came in, and I would liked to have known you when you were
just a kid, your contract burned us long before your legend ever did.

Burkettaboudit?

Does Boycott-John Have Any Not-So-Speeding Bullets Left?

Sunday August 25, 2002

Old Man Ryan Attacks Hench

8.25.02: Bob Ryan to Gordon Edes on WBZ-4 Sports Final: (Ryan coming off
saying "you can't count on Derek Lowe, Pedro is the only pitcher on this
team you can count on!"): "I don't care what your emailer from California
says, he needs to get a life and get back to what he does..." Gordon: "The
Henchman loves Pedro he is just saying..." Ryan: "He needs to stop
worrying about Pedro
throwing 97 miles per per hour..." (Bob maybe you should get off FM
radio stations, ESPN Sunday Magazines, etc., etc., and get back to your
day job.)

Angels
Squeeze Life Out of Sox

Scoscia bunts. Grady punts: "I would be
happy (to get a split) coming into this series against a team like
Anaheim."

So Boston continues to slide away into the sunset and
let the Anaheim #&%! Angels push them around Fenway Park.

Fehr and Loathing, part XVIII:Is
Cartel Tony Clark Killing the Sox?

Grady on 'Norma Rae': "The only difference between our
players and other clubs' players is that we may be a little more
informed.'' Is this team more worried about which first-class flight
to take home on Friday vs. winning games for their loyal fans?
File under: Things that make you go hmmmm.

Needles and Threads - Heard
on the Web

Is
Grady Still the "MVP?"

(Most Visible
Problem?)

8.25.02: Well, I just hope that all of you
who were saying since Day One that Grady Little was a GREAT choice
to manage this team, and I'm specifically referring to the ol'
Dirt Dog here, are beginning to do stringent penance over your
misperception.

Plain and simple: Grady Little is a moron.
THAT'S the reason he set records for longevity managing in the
minors, getting promoted at a snail's pace, and THAT'S the reason
he failed at job interview process after job interview process
until this moron group of owners, pressed by Larry "I'm an
arrogant moron" Lucchino hired this guy, WITHOUT INTERVIEWING
ANYONE ELSE BUT MIKE CUBBAGE AND FELIPE ALOU IN "THE PROCESS!!!!"

It is now clearly evident that the most
important decision that these new owners had to make this year has
been spectacularly booted. Putting this talented veteran team into
the hands of a moron rookie manager and his moronic drinking
buddy, Tony "I haven't been a pitching coach for 10 years so I
don't know about these computer thingees but I used to pitch
pretty good when I still could see my toes" Clodinger, was a high
crime, not only against Joe Kerrigan and Ralph Treuel but against
Red Sox Nation. If there were true justice in this world, Sox fans
would be allowed to tar and feather the bunch of them and run them
out on a rail and demand new ownership and management for this
team.

Four weeks ago Lowe couldn't throw 94 pitches
in a shutout against the Devil Rays, NOW he can throw 121 against
the Angels?

- Pumpsie

I'm not as anti-Grady as a lot of you, but
you can quite clearly stick this loss right on the forehead of
Grady Little. Of course, Howry didn't do much except throw
gasoline on the inferno when he came in, and Urbina is 0-6, so who
knows what would have happened if he hadn't decided to see how
many pitches it would take for Lowe's arm to fall off.

That said, you can give another big assist to
the everyday gag squad on top of Grady's lack of intelligence.
This is the biggest group of choke artists in Red Sox history,
and, if it weren't for the Gene Mauch Phillies, that might include
all of baseball. They should go down ahead of the '78 Sox, easily
outdistance the 1972 (? or was it '74?) they are definitely worse
than the 1995 Angels, and the Jimy Williams' Blue Jays.

What a pathetic group of overpaid little
girls. If they don't have a firesale, the entire supporting cast
of this team needs to be revamped. I don't care what his OPS is,
Brian Daubach stinks, and if you're relying on Trot Nixon to do
anything other than play halfway decent defense (and, that's all
his is folks, halfway decent) and bat 9th you're counting on too
much. Varitek is just as bad, but if the owners win this payroll
tax issue his contract is so bloated he won't be tradable.

They need to non-tender these losers and
replace them with legitimate professionals who don't cower in fear
and swing at the first halfway hittable goddamn pitch that comes
at them when the bases are loaded in a huge ballgame.

The “Curt’s Pitch
for ALS” program is a joint effort by Curt and Shonda Schilling, and The
ALS Association Mass Chapter to strike out Amyotrophic Lateral
Sclerosis, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Curt and Shonda
will be contributing $25,000 to The ALS Association Massachusetts
Chapter, and they are asking fans to contribute as well. All proceeds
will benefit research and patient services for those in Massachusetts
affected by the disease. Program participants will receive different
incentive prizes based on the dollar amount per strikeout that they
pledge.
Please
click here to learn more about the program.